Trash Tweeting by Trump

People are familiar with the term “trash talking”, i.e. negative or insultingthings said to or about someone. The President of the US has introduced us to trash tweeting on the subject of climate change.

he does not have to comment at length on the subject or quote any independent authority for his statements, and

his natural way of speaking –short points emphatically stated – reinforces his message with voters who elected him to office.

President Trump’s tweets ridicule the science of climate change. These tweets are written to re-inforce negative opinions on this subject held by his rank and file political supporters – and to influence millions of US voters who follow his Twitter account.

This week’s recent cold snap in North America inspired Trump to tweet sarcastically about “good old global warming.” To which he added a comment that the US was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against global warming – a grossly exaggerated reference to US payments to the United Nations Green Climate Fund to assist vulnerable countries prepare for the impacts of climate change.

Read our previous blog “Don’t be fooled by the weather”: changes in the weather mask climate change. The science community has spoken out many times to correct misinformation that has led to public confusion between the two. Yet in January 2016, after a heavy snow fall hit Washington, D.C. Trump claimed that the only change is the change in the weather which – as he stated -happens all the time.